While searching for examples of translated generic unit names from data/core/macros/names.cfg in Wesnoth (much to my disappointment, the Japanese translation uses the source strings verbatim for this), I discovered an oddly familiar name amongst the female Elvish names for the markovian generator.

Anylindë.

Back in 2007/2008, I was pretty much forced by Syntax_Error/Blarumyrran to change the name of one of the main characters in Invasion from the Unknown. Why? Because her name was Analia — never mind that female human units named “Bra” occur quite often in the game thanks to the RNG’s influence over the name generation algorithm.

So I consulted ESR, who came up with Anlindë as a possible replacement. I never noticed before that it was just one letter away from being a generic unit name. Then again, Galas and Elynia were my own design choice and they are, indeed, part of the name generator sources — I had gotten so frustrated at the design phase that I took a random generic name for Galas and the first feminine-sounding name starting with ‘E’ for Elynia.

Furthermore, I also took Analia from names.cfg and it’s still there. No overzealous purists have complained so far.

Would IftU have been a better campaign if I had used custom names for these three characters? Maybe, by a marginal difference. On the other hand, the one time a recruited elf with the name Elynia appeared during gameplay (that one Sprite I got in IftU doesn’t count), I protected her until the end the second-to-last scenario of HttT — by then she was a veteran Elvish Shyde.